[Asterisk-Users] Please help -- Syntax for dialing VoIP provider

[Paul Cheng]

Hi BK,

Using your configuration info, I now have Nikotel working again. Other  
than the fromuser=, it appears that one also now needs the auth=md5  
whereas before it was not necessary.

To disable incoming calling, just delete the register -> line for  
Nikotel. That way, no one can find you. You do not need to the register  
-> line for outgoing calls.

On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 11:16  AM, BK [address only for mailing  
lists] wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
> thanks for your insights
>
> On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 03:59 PM, Paul Cheng wrote:
>
>> To dial a PSTN number through Nikotel used to work from Asterisk, but  
>> they had a very serious security issue (you could make calls anytime  
>> anywhere and their billing wouldn't charge it) and after I informed  
>> them of this, they changed their authentication mechanism and since  
>> then I have not gotten it to work (they didn't even thank me!).
>
> This is what we have discovered last night. However, We have got it  
> working now.
>
> I will document this in detail and make it available, but briefly here  
> a quick summary ...
>
> First I had various glitches in my dial string. With the help of John  
> Todd and some others on the IRC #asterisk channel I was able to fix  
> those glitches. Thanks everybody who assisted.
>
> Then I tried a number of things I had already experimented with  
> before. When I turned on SIP debug and watched the datagrams, I could  
> see Nikotel's response "account name does not match address of  
> record". Together with the "from" part, this led me to fiddle with  
> "fromuser" again and when I set it to the actual login name, it > worked.
>
>> Their tech people said it should work with a slight change: "yes, we  
>> changed it yesterday. Now the user part of the From: address has to  
>> be the same as the username in the Proxy-Authentication line. I don't  
>> know if the Asterisk can do that. The ATA186 does it b[y] default."
>>
>> This CAN be done if you edit chan_sip.c,
>
> It would seem you can do it a lot simpler:
>
> in sip.conf
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
> register => myusername:mypassword at calamar0.nikotel.com
>
> [nikotel]
> username=myusername
> fromuser=myusername
> ...
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --
>
>> but when I did this, it billed me a few times for unconnected calls
>
> Thanks for sharing this with us. I will watch this for a while and see  
> if this happens here too.
>
>>  and I gave up trying to debug and switched to iConnect. iConnect is  
>> worse quality, but it is very easy to connect to.
>>
>> I had much better quality with calls via Nikotel than iConnect, but  
>> their support is non-existent/bad at best. I sent them 3-4 e-mails  
>> about their security issue before they even responded.
>
> Yes, support is not exactly their strength, is it?!
>
>> FYI. Registering with Nikotel was futile anyways, because I never  
>> figured out how anyone could call into me.
>
> I don't want anybody to call in via Nikotel. Since they do not provide  
> a telephone number for incoming calls, the only calls you could  
> possibly get are from their public chat room. In the very best case  
> you get a friendly test call from somebody who has just signed up and  
> wants to try out the service, in the worst case you get prank calls in  
> the middle of the night or indecent proposals and all the rest of it.
>
> I will have to find a way to disable incoming calls from Nikotel  
> entirely.
>
>
>> iConnect provides a PSTN-SIP dial in as an option, but I haven't  
>> tried it.
>
> Yes, I have seen that. And at $8.95/mth it would seem reasonably  
> priced, too.
>
>> Outbound calls do not require registering.
>>
>> I can provide examples of iConnect connection scripts if you contact  
>> me offline.
>
> Thanks, I will do that.
>
> again many thanks to everybody who has helped solving this riddle
> rgds
> bk
>
>
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>
---
Paul Cheng
Mátyás király ut 10
H-1121 Budapest HUNGARY
paul.cheng at alum.mit.edu
mobile: +36 30 381-9311